ardens and the cultivation of plants have been around for thousands of years with the first

examples dating to around 3000 years ago in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The
Romans were also keen gardeners and they were also aware of the medicinal properties of
plants. Following on from the Romans in identifying the medicinal properties of plants were
the monks. They also used the beauty of plants and flowers as a celebration of god. The
first of these monastic gardens was created in the 8th century. These gardens were the precursor to the physic gardens that appeared in the 16 century.
None of the gardens mentioned so far can be regarded as botanic gardens though. A
botanic garden is not an easy thing to classify (see the definition page for a detailed
definition) though an underlying scientific basis is a necessity. Therefore the worlds first
botanic gardens were the physic gardens of Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. The first of
these physic gardens was the garden of the University of Pisa which was created by Luca
Ghini in 1543. Following this other Italian universities followed suit and gardens were
created in Padova (1545), Firenze (1545) and Bologna (1547). These gardens were purely
for the academic study of medicinal plants. By the 16th Century these medicinal gardens
had spread to universities and apothecaries throughout central Europe such
as Cologne and Prague. The University of Oxford botanic garden was the first garden
established in the United Kingdom in 1621 with a mission to promote learning and the glory
of god.
Botanic gardens then
experienced a change
in usage during the
16th and 17th
century. This was the
age of exploration
and the beginnings of
international trade.
Gardens such as
the Royal Botanic
The Botanical Gardens of Padua University as seen in a 16th Century Print
Gardens, Kew and
the Real Jardn
Botnico de Madrid were set up to try and cultivate new species that were being brought
back from expeditions to the tropics. Not only did these gardens promote and encourage
botanical exploration in the tropics they also helped found new gardens in the tropical
regions to help cultivate these newly discovered plant species. The British established
Calcutta Botanic Gardens in 1787 while the French set up Pamplemousse Botanic
Gardens in Mauritius in 1735 and the Real Jardn Botnico de Madrid established
the botanic gardens of La Orotava on Tenerife. These tropical gardens were created almost
solely to receive and cultivate commercial crops such as cloves, tea, coffee, breadfruit,
cinchona, palm oil as well as chocolate. It was during these times that Para rubber was
introduced to Singapore, teak and tea to India and breadfruit, pepper and star fruit to the
Caribbean.
These tropical gardens could not strictly be called Botanic Gardens as there was no real
scientific basis to their work and this almost led to their decline. Separate institutions and

schools of agriculture were developed which meant that these cultivational gardens were
almost redundant.
During the 19th and 20th century municipal and civic gardens were created throughout
Europe and the British Commonwealth. Nearly all of these gardens were mainly pleasure
gardens with very few of them having any scientific programmes.Missouri botanic garden is
an exception to this and was the first botanic garden to be established in the United States
of America in 1859. During this section of botanic garden history the only real scientific
activities undertaken by gardens was the labelling of collections correctly and exchanging
seeds on a worldwide basis.
In the last 30 years botanic gardens have
seen a revival as scientific institutions due to
the emergence of the conservation
movement. They are now seen as very
important due to their existing collections and
the scientific knowledge they posses in the
propagation of plant species. Conservation is
now seen in many gardens as their rasion
detre. The beginning of this was seen in the
1970s when IUCN began encouraging ex
situ conservation of threatened plants.
The Glasshouse at Missouri Botanic Garden

There are now currently 1775 botanic gardens

and arboreta in 148 countries around the world with many more under construction or being
planned such as the first botanic garden in Oman which will be one of the largest gardens in
the world once it is completed and will house the first large scale internal fog-forest in a
huge glasshouse.